


Dear Heart

by Adeline_Hatter



Series: Hatter's Voltron Oneshots/Drabbles [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acxa going through the paces, Based on cherryandsisters artwork, Blade of Mamora Trials, F/M, Perfect for Angst???, This ship needs more content I swear, it's like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 03:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15855738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: What can you expect when something knows your hopes and fears, everything in between?Acxa goes through her trial.It was not what she expected.





	Dear Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this piece of art by Cherryandsisters that has just had me thinking of this for the last few days. 
> 
> http://cherryandsisters.tumblr.com/post/177564191094/the-suit-reflects-its-wearers-greatest-hopes-and

She’d been expecting the worst going into the Trials —  her Mother who disapproved of her so much she left, or maybe her Father who found everything so fundamentally wrong with her that he felt a need to prove it through the scars on her back and in her mind.

 

But she should have expected _him._

 

Should have seen him coming the moment she pulled the suit on. The moment she was handed the small and newly-forged blade by the Paladin she had sought help from.

 

_It had to be a lie. He was dead. He was dead, and he was never coming back._

 

“ _You are still perfect.”_ He tilted her chin up with one finger and she let him without resistance. It felt so real. “ _Still loyal…. Always loyal, aren’t you?”_

 

Her lip quivered, and his finger moved to rest on it.

 

“ _Still lovely, even in my dreams, Dear Heart.”_ He abandoned her face and carefully placed a hand on the small of her back. “ _Do you remember what we did to him? His screams as he begged for mercy?”_

 

“Yes.” It was such a small answer in the face of his power, his pride. Her scars throbbed for the first time in years, and she  felt nothing but grim satisfaction as she remembered her father’s face. “They were like music…” She doesn’t hate how true her words still ring to this day.

 

It felt so real.She _wanted_ it to be real as he cradled her cheek, saying, “ _And what about that darling Mother of yours?”_

 

 _“_ Alive. I wish she wasn’t.”

 

 _“Acxa,”_ he chided — so lightly, so like him, it felt so real, the touch of his hand, the hair fanning across her cheek. “ _We promised to save her for last, remember? Let her see what her daughter has done with the most powerful leader of the Galra the universe has ever known.”_

 

She could see it, she could see it like she saw him now in front of her — so _real_. “Of course.” Her answer was short, to the point. “I found her a long time ago.”

 

“ _I helped you to do that, didn’t I?”_

 

“You did.”

 

He hummed to himself. It was a tune she’d heard a million times when they were alone, when there was no Ezor or Zethrid, right at the beginning, when he’d run a hand over those scars with no barriers between their skin.

 

“ _So, what should we do next, my loyal soldier?”_ He felt real. Was he real? He couldn’t be real… She suddenly realised that she recognised her surroundings: her old room in _his_ base, where he created a whole world for just the two of them. “ _Find a planet to sway to our side with the words we do so love? Or if that fails…”_

 

 _“_ Take it by force.” Her voice echoed loudly in the room, and his fingers flexed as he looked at her like she was the most important piece of his plan, “I think the first option will prove more useful.”

 

“ _That’s my right hand.”_ What had she been doing again? There was a test, she remembered that. “ _I think I know what to do first, though.”_

 

 _“_ And what is that, My Prince?” He leaned forwards, his hair just brushing her cheek as she bent her head to feel the soft pressure on her forehead.

 

_“You have to save me, Dear Heart. How could you let them leave me there?”_

 

“I… I didn’t, My Prince.”

 

“ _Liar.”_ He lashed out, her cheek had stung despite how light it had been, his hand coming to rest on her neck, brushing her hair-

 

The trance broke, and she looked up at him. “I’m not a liar.”

 

“ _Dear Heart…”_

 

Her hand came up and grabbed his arm, moving his hand “I’m not a liar,” she repeats. “ _You_ are _.”_

 

“ _Acxa, consider carefully your choice of words. We’ve talked about this.”_

 

“You lied to me.”

 

_“I have never lied to you.”_

 

The lump in her throat was now impossible to ignore. “Yes, you have.”

 

 _“Why would I lie to my Loyal Little Soldier?”_ Her hand was holding a blade- Oh, that was right. “ _Acxa, Dear Heart-”_

 

“Don’t call me that!” It came out as a yell. “That is not my name! You don’t get to call me that now!”

 

“ _Acxa,”_ he chided, and she flinched at his tone, different now — and so _real,_ but he wasn’t real, was he? His hand moved to cup her face, all anger and rage gone from his face as it returned to the softness she used to— “ _Come save me, prove that I still have you, that you still love me-”_

 

 _“No,”_ she growled, “You belong there.”

 

_“Dear Heart-”_

 

“You belong dead!” Her voice cracks. “You don’t get to touch me!” She took a single step towards him and he took a step back and then she’s not in _that_ uniform anymore, she’s not in _that_ room, not in _that_ base. “You don’t get to give me orders!”

 

He flinched at every word, and Acxa found it satisfying. “ _Acxa-”_

 

“DON’T SAY MY NAME!” She was screaming now. “YOU DON’T GET TO SAY MY NAME LIKE THAT!”

 

“ _Like what?”_ his shadow said. _“Acxa, you know how I feel about you… My perfect, loyal soldier—”_

 

“I am not your _anything.”_ The weight in her hand changed and suddenly she was back in the Blade headquarters, holding something else now — something heavier.

 

_You have to earn it._

 

“I should never have listened to a word you said.”

 

_You have to own it._

 

“Because I’m not a loyal soldier.”

 

_You have to face it._

 

“Because I was never-”

 

She swung the sword in her hands.

 

“- _Free with you!”_

 

He smiled at her, like the memory of the lover she’d once had always did.

 

“I may have loved you—” her voice cracked again as her eyes filled with tears,  “—but I will _never forgive you._ ”

 

 _“Oh, Dear Heart,”_ Lotor said with miserable joy. “ _You will never stop loving me.”_

 

She thrust the blade into his chest.

 

The feeling of it sinking into his flesh is so _real._

 

His smile lingered last in this, fading away slowly, like he had over the years.

 

And for the first time in years...

 

Acxa cried without caring who saw her.

 

Because it was true; his phantom was right.

 

She still loved him.

 

Despite all of it.

 

She still loved him.

 

It was unavoidable. Knowing all of his sins, all of his tricks, all of his lies...

 

_She would always love him._

 

She would never not be his Loyal Little Soldier.

 

Despite how loudly proclaimed she wasn’t.

 


End file.
